Friday, August 21, 2015

Horus Heresy Review: Auxilia Leman Russ Strike Squadron


Background
Named for one of the primarchs, the Leman Russ battle tanks are an excellent choice for the Solar Auxilia. Significantly, there are FOUR variants to select between and a squadron can be up to three tanks.

Strengths
Look, these are Leman Russ tanks. They are a reasonable price, and they perform accordingly. They are not game breaking in the slightest.

Well, that is until you start to realise what outflanking Leman Russ tanks might be capable of.

Most tanks in 30k and 40k have significantly weaker armour to their rear. Outflanking a Leman Russ (or a squadron of them!) in a critical area of the board means that the controlling player is suddenly in a really good position compared to what might otherwise happen if they were set up as a part of a gun line army.

On top of this, they have an induction charger fitted. This means that unlike their 40k descendants, they can move very fast. Once per game at any rate. Hence if they do outflank and appear where they should not have been, they can at least try to go fast to get to where they should be.

NB: These tanks are also fast attack selections.

Weaknesses
Some variants have ordnance weapons which means no snap firing of other weapons. Therefore some weapon upgrades might not be worth it.

Other than that, they're a breed apart from the 40k counterparts due to the outflanking. They also have an exploratory adaptation, but I doubt its going to do much as its rules are not very strong.

Builds
Below, I provide one build for each major tank variant.

Leman Russ Battle Tank, Armoured Ceramite (195 points)
A classic build with 30k's armoured ceramite thrown in on top for extra durability. This tank can happily stay as part of the army's main gun line and does not need to outflank.

Leman Russ Exterminator, Lascannon (180 points)
Now here is a tank to outflank and go tank killing with (assuming, they're all showing you their rear armour). Use the exterminator auto cannon and the lascannons to pop tanks (or even glance them to death) on the turn it comes on to the board (in the rear of your opponent's deployment).

Leman Russ Annihilator, Lascannon (180 points)
Although it has less shots per turn that the Exterminator above, two las cannons (one of which is twin linked) is a threat to anything in the game. Plus it has a long enough range to use in either an outflanking mode, or as part of a more static gun line.

Leman Russ Vanquisher, Armoured Ceramite (195 points)
Take a lascannon to taste. Either way, with a huge range, this tank can operate anywhere it so pleases. Outflank it to worry opponents. Keep it where it is (and in cover?) to reach out over the battle field with its huge range. The armour bane rule on the main weapon is going to be a problem for any enemy armour.

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